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Police investigate Moorhead man for tattooing underage girls

MOORHEAD - Police are investigating a man here after at least three 14-year-old girls told authorities he gave them tattoos in his apartment and then took photographs of the tattoos, some of which were placed on the girls' private areas, court records show.

Police seized computers, cellphones, cameras and a spray bottle containing water in soap in a search warrant at a south Moorhead apartment on Oct. 28.

An affidavit requesting the search warrant alleges that the 14-year-olds told police they know the man by his nickname "Monster," according to documents filed in Clay County District Court late last week.

The man is identified in the warrant but as of Thursday afternoon, he had not been charged or arrested. The alleged victims told police the man is in his late 20s or early 30s, court documents say.

At least two of the three 14-year-olds didn't have parental consent to receive the tattoos, police say in the affidavit, and one of them said she told the man that her parents hadn't given her the OK.

It is illegal to tattoo a minor without parental consent, said Lt. Tory Jacobson, of the Moorhead Police Department.

Jacobson said Thursday that the investigation is ongoing and he could not comment on it at this time.

According to court records, one of the 14-year-olds told police the suspect's "reputation has gone around Fargo South High School" and many students had received tattoos from him. She let the suspect take a photo of a tattoo on her buttocks, she told police.

Another of the 14-year-old girls showed police a photo she claimed was of a tattoo the man had drawn in the pubic region of an underage girl.

One of the girls told police that the man tattooed her in his bedroom, using a tattoo gun with a foot pedal, and that he used water and a towel to clean her off, the warrant states. According to court records, police did not seize a tattoo gun in the Oct. 28 search.